Process of extracting oil.



No. 655,2l3. Patented Aug. 7, I900. C. ERISMAN.

PROCESS OF EXTBAGTING OIL.

(Application filed Apr; 25, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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his attorney waajuw UNITED STATES PATENT GFF E.

oLEM ERISMAN, on DECATUR, ILLINOIS, AssIeNoR TO FRANK M. PRATT, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCE$S OF EXTRACTING OIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 655,213, dated August 7, 1900.

Application filed April 25, 1900- Serial No. 14,228. (No specimens.)

in floating the meal or other material on a body of the solvent and permitting it to settle through the same by' action of gravity.

In the percolating method of extracting oils the matter to be treated is placed in a tank or other receptacle, and the solvent is then supplied to the top of the mass and gradually makes its way downward; but in meals, particularly the finer kinds, the mass packs so closely that the solvent permeates quite slowly. This is especially true of the meal near the bottom of a high tank, and it constitutes a serious drawback to the extractin g of oils from meal by the percolating method on an extensive, practical, and economical scale. Moreover, where extracting of oil is made one of the steps in the operation of a cereal-mill or wherever grinding and extracting are performed successively in a continuous operation it is desirable that the product of the mill shall be discharged into the extracting-tank as it is ground and otherwise treated. The tank is filled somewhat slowly, but in a continuous stream, and if the tank is first filled with the product of the mill and then supplied with the solvent considerable time is wasted and'the number of tanks required to keep the extracting up with the mill is needlessly great. With my process the meal or other material may be carried from the mill to the tank as fast as it is ground, cleaned, 850., so that by the time the tank is filled the extracting process is substantially completed, and the tank need be out of communication with the mill only slightly longerthan the time required to draw off the solvent and oil,empty thetank of the material under treatment, and resupply a body of solvent.

In a broad and general sense the receptacle for the solvent may be of any kind and character, so long as it is capable of retaining the solvent and the material to be treated there- 'in,-and the means employed to float the material on the solvent is likewise free from restrictions; but in order to show the practical side of the invention and the greatest utility thereof at present known to me I have in the drawings forming part of this specification illustrated an apparatus with a set of which persons skilled in the arts of milling and extracting oils may extract oil from meal and the like as fast as it is discharged from the mill.

In the drawings a tank is shown at 1 in central vertical section. At 2 .is shown a false or supplementary bottom for the tank, which bottom is finely perforated. At 3 is shown a threaded shaft fastened to the center of the false bottom and extended upward through the upper end of the tank. At 4 is shown a worm-wheel the hub of which is internally screw-threaded to conform to the threads of shaft 3. At 5 is shown a conveyer to carry the material from the mill to the tank. At 6 is shown a conveyor to withdraw the material from which the oil has been extracted out of the upper end of the tank. At 7 are shown arms intended to be rotated for the purpose of carrying the material to the conveyer 6. At 8 is shown a space in the tank between the false bottom and the real bottom thereof. A pipe in the bottom of the tank to carry off the solvent and the oil is shown at 9, and a valve for the pipe is shown at 10.

In operation the tank is supplied with enough of the solvent 11 to extract the oil from enough meal to fill the tank nearly to the conveyer 6, and the meal 12 is discharged in a comparatively-thin stream onto the upper surface of the solvent. The upper surface of the body of the solvent is sufficiently extensive to permit the meal to settle as fast or nearly as fast as it is deposited, and each particle of the meal in settling to the false bottom of the tank is subjected to the influence of a great quantity of the solvent. The settling operation is so gradual that there is no tendency for the meal to pass through or choke up the perforations in the false bottom through which the solvent and the oil pass. This is an advantage over the percolating system, which tends to Wash the meal into and through the perforations. When the, meal and the solvent fill the tank nearly the solvent above the meal, andat this juncture the delivery of the meal is stopped.

After waiting a short time for the meal last delivered to be fully subjected to the action of the solvent the valve 10 is opened and the solvent and extracted oil are drawn 0E through pipe 9. Then the false bottom is raised by turning wheel 4, the conveyer 6 is rotated, and as the meal is raised in contact with the conveyer 6 itis drawn out of the tank. The arms 7 are rotated by suitable mechanism, not'necessary to describe, and the meal is leveled as the false bottom rises'and all carried into contact with the dischargingconveyer.

I claim- 1. The process of extracting oil from substances containing it, which process consists in supplying the substanceto be treated 'to the upper surface of a body of a solvent in a scattered condition and permitting it to settle unobstructedly therethrough. to conveyer 6, there is a small quantity of 2. The process of extracting oil from substances containing it, which process consists in dribbling the substance to be treated onto a body of a solvent and permitting it to settle vertically therethrou'gh.

3. The process of extracting oil from suba solvent and permitting it to settle vertically therethrough.

In testimony whereof I sign my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

OLEM .ERISMAN. Witnesses:

CHAS. F. PRATT, SEYMOUR CAMPBELL. 

